Here are Kenzie and Mason's buds Josh and Luke.

Because you asked for the full story of Kenzie puking into the Starbucks bucket...this was the "before" picture and the cause. One too many pictures with the wax teeth: "hold it, just one more, Luke's not looking" or "Mason didn't have his teeth in." We had to push it, she couldn't hold it.

Luckily they had a 2 gallon bucket near the espresso bar.

Kenzie used to talk about her uvula a lot. (Maybe it's because she has such a sensitive gag reflux...as she demonstrated just yesterday by puking into Starbuck's "sale" bucket...but that's another story.) I thought it appropriate to show this picture where Mason proudly displays his.

At Mason's birthday party last weekend we had a Spiderman pinata. After all the kids had a few turns whacking, we cut Mason loose. He was a wild man, eventually crushing the skull and severing the torso of Spiderman. That poor superhero was defenseless against that plastic bat (as was Jackie who kept trying to keep the rest of the kids out of the way).

I'm thinking it was a good thing that Cindy wasn't able to find the aluminum bat that I sent her searching for.

We had curriculum night at Kenzie's school. Before we left Cindy said to Kenzie, "Hey, we're going to chat with your teacher. Anything we should know before we talk to her?" (Last year we learned some things from her teacher that, well, surprised us. We told her we would rather hear it from her.)

She looked up into her memory bank and said, "No, I really don't think so."

Then Kenzie got me alone and said, "Mom, what are you guys going to do?"

In my most casual tone I said, "Oh, we're just going to go talk to your teacher and learn about what you're going to be learning this year." And then I added, "and watch the videos."

"Mom, what videos?"

I replied, "oh the videos of the last few days at school. I really want to watch the ones of your recess."

She looked at me with her eyes beginning to cross, not quite sure if she should believe me or not. She was about 45% sure that there were no videos.

I asked her the question again, "is there anything you'd like me to know before I go, because you know it'd be so much better to hear it from you than from your teacher."

"Mom. Seriously. There's not. I can't think of anything."

"Great, we'll see you later!" And we left.

We got to hear again from her teacher "Miss B". I think she'll be great for Kenzie. She's got a lot going on in the classroom, from a packed schedule to tons of energy. She said that she is enjoying Kenzie a lot and that "she is not one of my problem children but she does have wandering hands." She pokes and nudges, so they're working on it. But, all in all, Kenzie is doing great.

I think Kenzie has lots of opportunities to learn this year. (Last year was a bit of an academic bust with half day Kindergarten.) The thing I like is that there seems to be ways to help kids at all levels learn. Plus, Miss B appears to be easy going enough to appreciate Kenzie's...um...how shall we say..."more driven" tendencies and will hopefully help her channel them into positive traits.

I'll be sure to share the videos...

I called home on my way out of work tonight, in a bit of a rush to talk to Cindy before 8 people showed up for dinner. Kenzie answered the phone and, in a rare turn of events, was chatty on the phone with me. Soon I could tell that she had taken the phone into her bedroom and I was receiving Top Secrets, such as the inner rituals of the playground game of Chase. It was an honor, for sure, but I was still on a timeline.

After probably 10 minutes of giddiness and detail, my time was evaporating. I really needed to talk to Cindy.

So, I asked. As I might have expected, Kenzie delegated the grunt work of transporting the phone:

Kenzie: "Mason, give this phone to Ama."

Mason: "Hello?"

Me: "Hi honey, hey, I need to talk to Ama, can you please give the phone to her?"

Mason: "Mom, do you want to listen to some music?"

Me: "No, thanks, I just need to talk to Ama."

[James Brown starts playing very loudly. Clearly the phone is next to the speaker.]

"I feel good, I knew that I would, now"

Me: "Mason? Mason? Mason!! Mason"

"I know that I can't do no wrong"

[2 more minutes of music]

Mason: "Mom, did you like that?"

Me: "Um, honey, thanks, but I really need to talk to Ama."

[more music]

Me: "Mason!? Mason!"

[pause]

Mason: "Hi Mom"

Me: "Mason, please, TAKE THE PHONE TO AMA."

[silence] [pause...] [click]


I call back. Phone rolls to voicemail.

I call Cindy's cell. She answers, I'm almost home.

We had Mason's second birthday party last weekend, this one for most of his friends.

As I was putting him to bed we were talking about it. I said, "look at all the people who love you. You have so much love in your life." He replied, "yeah," then paused and said, "I should give some of that away."

ahhh...

Time to start training for the annual Bolam golf tournament and who better to lead them than Grandpa?!?

Gives "four" a whole new meaning for Mason!

I am home from my work trip today. The kids and Cindy met me at Boeing Field and got to tour three of the company planes, sitting in each cockpit. I think their favorite was this float plane. But, the favorite moment was when the pilot opened up the secret candy drawer and let them have their pick.

Kenzie loved her first day of school. Her teacher is young (this is her third year teaching) and is named Miss B.

We're back home! And, to help us adjust, we wanted to bake a pie with fresh-picked apples from our tree. Trouble was that the apples were too high to reach and our ladder was too rickety (see exhibit A, left). So, I told the kids to step out from under the tree while I shook it. They then went chasing after the bouncing apples. We couldn't quite get enough, so Cindy had to hold the ladder (together) while I climbed on it. She and I about knocked ourselves out but, alas, we got enough apples to make a pie. Then I sent the kids out to pick blackberries for another one. Ah, there are no blackberries or apples fresh in Hawaii (but I would have settled for a pineapple upside-down cake).

Today we snorkeled at Poipu beach. It was gorgeous, but the water was pretty rough, and we got tossed around a bit. I took Kenzie out first. This time I put flippers on her so she could swim better. (Later I asked if it worked and she said, "um, I don't know, I didn't kick my feet.") Anyway, flippers on sand are not easy to walk in. Add to that pretty good sized waves hitting us at the waist, and you'll know why we'll be complaining of finding sand for weeks to come. I washed my hair for a good ten minutes and still am finding sand.

It all was worth it - the fish came out by the masses. They loved our processed cheese! (It may have confused some of the other snorkelers, but they were jealous when the saw the swarms of fish around us.) Kenzie and I swam out for a while, squirted some cheese, looked down and there were quite literally hundreds of fish around us within minutes. Some were at least two feet across. Mmmm, how they loved that cheese. So much so that I found myself a little freaked out and tried to hide the can. Not many places to hide a can of Cheese Whiz out there. Kenzie just wanted to feed them more and more, I was trying to be a good sport, but when their fins kept touching my knees I felt the need to kick my flippers for a while. Anyway, she was more than amazed. After a while I noticed that her arm was cold, so I took her to shore. Turns out that she hadn't moved at all the whole time we were out there, and she was frozen. Her little teeth chattered and her lips were blue! I tossed her to shore (well, the waves tossed her to shore), and I grabbed Mason, AKA Mr. Fearless.

He didn't have the mouthpiece, just goggles. No worries, he just held his breath and stuck his whole head under...time and time again...in the middle of the giant swells. However, he didn't want to just squeeze the can o' cheese, he wanted the cheese squeezed into his hand so that the fish would eat directly from his hand. Ever try to check for teeth on fish in the middle of the ocean? I was surveying them, some of whom were almost as big as he, to figure out if they had teeth. Then I thought, well, if they eat cheese then they must not eat meat, right? I mean, seriously, I was not as prepared as I should have been and after he got his fill, or maybe I got mine, we went back to shore. He got shot out of my arms to the beach with one giant wave. I caught him on the way back, then Cindy grabbed him. Alas, it was fun, but I'm glad that adventure is over.

Then we went and looked at the sea turtles. Cute turtles that we could see from the shore. (Kenzie and I swam over one earlier, but didn't stop to linger...again, the teeth thing, plus I don't know if turtles like cheese.)